Typeset-10 Product Proposal 197310

This document is a "Typeset-10 Product Proposal" from Digital Equipment Corporation, dated October 22, 1973, intended as a review copy for comments. It outlines the background, proposed management, installation, product features, and business plan for the Typeset-10 software system.

Key points include:

1. Challenging Origin: The Typeset-10 software evolved in a chaotic "react" mode, with initial sales and delivery scheduled before feasibility studies or clear specifications. This led to significant problems, including lack of defined goals, constant rewrites, and difficulty achieving customer acceptance and payment for the first three installations (Palm Beach, Kansas City Star, London Free Press).
2. Phased Development & Management Restructuring: To address these issues, a new structured approach is proposed with three software phases:
   • Phase I: Existing, poorly planned, and often undocumented code that requires significant work for maintenance and may be rewritten.
   • Phase II: Better defined and planned software developed to meet contractual commitments, but not yet considered a "standard" product.
   • Phase III: Future development aimed at achieving full customer satisfaction, enhancing maintainability, and improving product performance, becoming the core Typeset-10 system software. Formal project management procedures, including weekly reviews, strict functional/design specifications for new projects, and dedicated Quality Assurance, are being implemented under a newly formed Typeset-10 Cost Center.
3. Enhanced Support & Quality: The proposal emphasizes standardized Software Problem Report (SPR) and Software Change Order (CCO) procedures, automated testing, and formal software release schedules. For installations, future contracts will include detailed specifications and structured support packages as priced line items, shifting from developer-heavy involvement to dedicated Field Installation Teams, resident software specialists, operations support, and remote diagnostic capabilities.
4. Product Capabilities & Future Growth:
   • Current: Includes modules for text input/editing (COPYED, PRUFED, WIPTIN), processing (Justification & Hyphenation), output (Allotter, various machine drivers), and Classified Advertising management.
   • Future Development: Key areas for enhancement include Pagination of Classified Advertising, Page Production (for book/document publishing), and Full Page Interactive Pagination (a major goal for newspapers, estimated at $100,000 for software alone).
5. Business Plan & Pricing: The Typeset-10 aims to be a "top-of-the-line" Graphic Arts system, profitable, and to expand the customer base for DECsystem-10.
   • Short-term: Focus on securing acceptance and payment from the existing three KA-based customers.
   • Long-term: Develop for KI-based systems (projecting 20 deliveries over three years) and then for KL-based "Typeset-20" systems (projecting 43 deliveries by FY79), leveraging the new KL-10 processor. The "added value" software revenue is expected to be a significant portion of total system price (up to 40%).
   • Pricing:
     • Basic Text Processing Package: $50,000
     • Basic Classified Advertising Package: $40,000
     • Classified Advertising Billing Package: $10,000
     • Additional Machine Driver: $5,000 These packages include installation, documentation, training, and four weeks of on-site typesetting support. Preliminary pricing for future advanced capabilities is also provided.